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PROCUREMENT
6 airportbusiness December 2017/January 2018
By Michael Wilson
Why You Need a SOW
Landing in Your Airport
Make sure your RFP is up-to-date so you're not taken
to the cleaner on housekeeping contracts.
However, the contractor said there were
unanticipated cost overruns. So in 2014, it billed
O'Hare an extra $5.2 million; in 2015 the com-
pany added another $1.7 million; and last year
they tacked on another $750,000. The $99 million
contract ballooned to more than $107 million.
Since then, there have been a number of
lawsuits and accusations going back and forth
between the city and the contractor as well as
the union representing the cleaning workers
and the contractor. And while the cleaning con-
tractor said the increased charges were mainly
the result of wage issues and increased costs
for cleaning products and materials, it is pos-
sible the airport itself must share some of the
blame – if the request for proposal (RFP) they
were working with was not up to date.
RFPS AND THE EVOLUTION OF CLEANING
There are all types of requests for proposals;
some are for copiers, telephone systems, as
well as cleaning. A request for proposal is a
document that solicits proposals asking deal -
ers and service providers what products or ser-
vices they will provide – per the RFP - and how
C
hicago's O'Hare Airport has nearly 5
million square feet of space that must
be cleaned every day. In 2012, airport
administrators signed a contract with a
local cleaning contractor who agreed to
clean the facility for $99 million annu-
ally. The contract was set to run for five years and
ends at the end of this year.